Two boats with quagga mussels intercepted by Lake Tahoe inspectors

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On Aug. 2, officials stopped a boat at the Spooner Summit inspection station on Highway 50 with more than 50 quagga mussels on the transom, engine and engine intake system. The owner had notified inspectors that he was bringing the boat from Lake Mead and had already cleaned and decontaminated the boat, the release stated. When Lake Tahoe Watercraft inspectors found mussels still attached, they decontaminated the boat, which is now on a weeklong quarantine.

Inspectors found one live quagga mussel on the anchor line of a pleasure craft on Aug. 3 at the Meyers Watercraft Inspection Station. According to the release, the boat had recently been in the Lake Havasu area.

"Inspectors with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District have intercepted at least 6 boats so far in 2012 with aquatic invasive species attached, including 5 boats carrying invasive quagga or zebra mussels and 1 boat potentially transporting New Zealand mudsnails," Tahoe RCD spokesperson Peter Brumis stated in the release.